Tag: Christian (Page 1 of 7)

Letter II: Blessed Are the Broken – Mercy in a World That Discards

May 18, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Letters to the American Church

To the beloved of Christ in the land of abundance and affliction, grace, mercy, and clarity to you in the name of Jesus, who was moved with compassion and wept over what the world deemed unworthy of tears.

I write to you with the weight of a question:
Have we forgotten how to feel?

Not how to feel offended.
Not how to feel angry.
But how to feel compassion.

We live in a society that discards the weak, mocks the vulnerable, and punishes the poor. And too often, the church has followed suit, not with cruelty in its hands, but with apathy in its heart.

Let us remember what moved Jesus.

He did not rush past the bleeding woman.
He did not avoid the cries of the blind.
He did not silence the leper or cross the road to preserve purity.
He stopped. He listened. He touched. He healed.

Mercy was not His strategy. It was His nature.

And it must become ours.

To be merciful is to see the suffering that others ignore.
It is to sit with pain that cannot be fixed.
It is to believe that no human life is disposable.
It is to say, “Your distress is not a disruption to my faith; it is where my faith begins.”

This is not softness. It is strength.
It is not sentimentality. It is sanctification.

Jesus did not bless the powerful, the efficient, or the polished.
He said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”
Mercy is not a loophole in God’s justice; it is the heart of it.

So I ask again, Church:

  • When did we learn to explain away the tears of the traumatized?
  • When did we become more fluent in judgment than in gentleness?
  • When did we decide that suffering people were a political problem instead of sacred neighbors?

The Spirit of Christ is not found in cold calculation but in compassionate proximity.

We cannot call ourselves followers of Jesus if we do not bend toward the broken.
We cannot be His body if we do not carry His heart.

And His heart still beats for the hungry child, the grieving mother, the anxious mind, the wounded soul.

Mercy is not weakness; it is our witness.

Beloved, this is not a guilt trip. It is a gospel invitation. You are loved by the One who bore your wounds in His body. And He calls you not to save the world, but not to look away. To love those the world forgets. To see dignity where others see inconvenience. To bless what others curse.

Mercy will always look foolish to those addicted to power.
But it will look like Christ to those longing for a Savior.

So may we feel again.
May we move toward pain, not away from it.
May we become, once more, a people of mercy.

For that is the way of Jesus.

Grace and peace to you from the Compassionate Christ,
Bruce

Letter I: To Follow Jesus is to Carry the Cross of Love

May 11, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Letters to the American Church

To the beloved of Christ scattered across America, grace, peace, and courage to you in the name of Jesus, who loved us and gave Himself for us.

I write to you with the burden of both grief and hope. Grief, because so many who wear Christ’s name have forgotten what it means to follow Him. Hope, because His call still rings out, unwavering: “Follow me.” Not into power, not into safety, not into superiority—but into love. A love that costs. A love that heals. A love that carries a cross.

Let us remember what Jesus asked of us.

He did not say, “Take up your comfort.”
He did not say, “Defend your dominance.”
He did not say, “Prove your righteousness.”

He said, “Take up your cross.”

The cross was not a symbol of cultural relevance or religious pride. It was Rome’s cruel tool of execution, repurposed by Christ as the ultimate sign of self-giving love. And He did not wield it against others. He carried it for others.

To be Christian is not to wield the sword of judgment but to bear the wounds of mercy. It is to embody the ethic of the kingdom He proclaimed in His Sermon on the Mount: a way of meekness, mercy, peacemaking, and purity of heart. That sermon, not Caesar’s sword or the Constitution’s amendments, is our moral charter.

Jesus’ new commandment, “Love one another as I have loved you,” is not an ornament for our theology; it is the cornerstone. This kind of love is not sentimental. It is sacrificial. It is not ideological. It is incarnational. And it is not optional.

Christ-followers, the time has come for us to examine our hearts and ask:

  • Have we traded the gospel of Jesus for a gospel of power?
  • Have we made being “right” more important than being loving?
  • Have we built sanctuaries of self-protection instead of communities of self-giving?

The cruciform life—the cross-shaped life—is the only one Jesus ever invited us into. It is the way of downward mobility, of humility and service, of justice that flows not from domination but from compassion. It looks like washing feet. It looks like forgiving enemies. It looks like feeding the hungry and protecting the vulnerable.

If your faith costs you nothing, it may not be Christ you’re following.

This is not a call to guilt but to grace. You are loved… deeply, relentlessly. Even now, the Spirit is ready to breathe new life into weary disciples, disillusioned believers, and compromised churches. But revival will not come through a flag or a ballot box. It will come when we return, not to empire but to Christ.

Beloved, the world will not know us by our influence, but by our love. That is the mark of discipleship. That is the witness the world longs to see.

So take up your cross, not in bitterness, but in joy. Not to defeat your neighbor, but to serve them. Not to prove a point, but to love without condition.

For that is the way of Jesus.

Grace and peace to you from the Crucified and Risen One,

In the fellowship of Christ’s love,

Bruce

Spiritual Warfare is Not Culture Warring

April 13, 2023 / / 0 Comments
medieval armor
Photo by Ott Maidre on Pexels.com

For Christians today, navigating the various interpretations of scripture can be a challenging task. One idea that’s gained momentum lately is the notion of “spiritual warfare” as a rallying cry for engaging in a culture war. The thought is that we must battle against those with whom we disagree on cultural and political matters. However, it’s crucial to scrutinize this interpretation in light of the teachings of the Apostle Paul. Paul never urged us to fight against people, even those we believe have power. Instead, we must understand that our actual struggle is against the evil and demonic forces that try to sidetrack us from caring for the most vulnerable members of society.

War! What is it Good For

As Christians, we must clearly understand what “spiritual warfare” means. Essentially, it refers to the battle between good and evil in the spiritual realm, which can manifest in various ways in the physical world. However, some Christians mistakenly view this as a battle against their cultural and political “enemies,” which goes against the teachings of Jesus.

This interpretation of spiritual warfare is problematic because it equates the fight against evil with a fight against people who have different opinions. This leads to a self-righteous attitude that is contrary to the teachings of Jesus. Instead, the Apostle Paul urges us to struggle against the evil forces that tempt us to ignore the needs of society’s most vulnerable members.

Paul recognized that the battle against evil is not a physical one but a spiritual one. As he says in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

In other words, our battle is not against other people but against the spiritual forces that seek to distract us from our mission to care for others. This mission is at the heart of Jesus’s teachings. He frequently emphasized the importance of caring for the poor, the sick, and the marginalized. So let us focus our efforts on battling against the spiritual forces of evil and fulfilling our mission to care for others, just as Jesus taught us to do.



I’m on a Mission from God

As Christians, we must remember that our mission is to follow in Jesus’s footsteps, not engage in a culture war against other people. When we focus on fighting others, we become self-centered and self-righteous, losing sight of the love-driven service that Jesus taught. Jesus emphasizes in Mark 10:43-45 that to be great, we must serve all in the same way that He came to serve.

When we engage in a culture war, we put our will before the needs of others, which is the opposite of true Christianity. The reality is that we are committing a form of spiritual violence that is antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.

Instead, we must resist the temptation to engage in a culture war and direct our energy toward the battle against evil. We must recognize that our struggle is not against other people but against the spiritual forces of evil that distract us from caring for society’s most vulnerable members. We must resist self-centeredness and self-righteousness and strive to follow in Jesus’s footsteps by serving others with love.

Looking Like Jesus

If we genuinely desire to follow Jesus, it is essential to remember that interpreting “spiritual warfare” as a call to engage in a culture war against those who disagree with us is, at a minimum, misguided. Our real battle is against the forces of evil that distract us from caring for those whom Jesus identifies with. By resisting engagement in a culture war and focusing on loving and serving others, we come closer to resembling Jesus and honoring God.

Paul challenges us to fight the good fight of faith and finish the race set before us with our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:1-2). As Christians, our ultimate goal is not to win an earthly battle but to see God’s will done on earth as it is in Heaven, as Jesus invited us to do.

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